"At this time of Fidel Castro's passing, we extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people," President Obama said in a response to the former Cuban president's death on Saturday. "We know that this moment fills Cubans — in Cuba and in the United States — with powerful emotions, recalling the countless ways in which Fidel Castro altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation. History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him."
The carefully worded comments went on to offer sympathy to Castro's loved ones and express hope for improved future relations between the U.S. and Cuba. As the Cuban people "recall the past and also look to the future," Obama concluded, they "must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America."
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